Banana Raisin Muffins

This muffin was meant to be Banana Orange Raisin Muffins. But I was too conservative with the marmalade because I was afraid that it would not be well received by my family. With the benefit of hindsight, I should have just plonked more marmalade into the batter.

My favorite muffin is banana muffin and all I need to do is to add other ingredients for variety. There are so many things that you could add like chocolate chips, nuts, dried fruits, oats and even jam. I have a jar of marmalade that is feeling sad and blue in my fridge. And not wanting to have to throw it out, I had better use it before it expires.

Banana and orange came to mind and just to make sure nobody laughed at me, I did a search on the internet. Ah! There are loads of banana orange muffins recipes and it looks like I wasn't so original after all hah! hah!

One recipe I found on Bakerstreet uses orange marmalade. My muffins had bananas, raisins, too little marmalade and very little sugar. Bananas, raisins and marmalade are already sweet and my Banana Carrot Cake did receive some complaints that it was too sweet. 

Just to dress them up a bit, I sliced some leftover bananas and placed them on top of the muffins just like what I have seen in some of your blogs. I used buttermilk and made sure that I mixed the batter very gently. The previous week, I was a bit too heavy handed and my muffins turned out very dense and doughy. Just fold, scrapping from bottom to top until I don't see any more flour.

The muffins rose very nicely in the oven and I rotated the pan at half time to ensure even baking. When the muffins were cool enough, I bit into one and was happy that it was soft and moist. It tasted very good but I was disappointed that I could not taste the marmalade. It was only at a small spot did the marmalade come through and it tasted very, very, nice indeed.

This is a confirmation to me that I should not worry about piling on the marmalade in my future bake.  I would also increase the amount of raisins as I felt that there wasn't enough. I could have easily eaten three or four of these muffins but.........I had to cut back. PH is too fat :(

Banana muffin lovers, give this muffin a try and if you like the taste of oranges, be generous with the marmalade. If you can, add some orange zest. That would make these muffins heavenly! 

Banana Raisin Muffins

Recipe source : Adapted from here

Makes 12 regular sized muffins.

Ingredients :

- 230grams self raising flour

- 1 cup raisins (I would increase to 2 cups in future)

- 1/4 cup brown sugar (if you have a sweet tooth, add more)

- 2 large eggs, lightly beaten

- 1/2 cup grapeseed oil (or any vegetable oil)

- 1 cup buttermilk

- 2 medium sized bananas, mashed

- Some marmalade, enough to go into the 12 muffins

- extra banana, sliced to decorate (optional)

Method :

1. Preheat oven to 160C

2. Line muffin pans with paper liners.

3. In a mixing bowl add flour and raisins. Stir to coat raisins with flour (this will prevent them from sinking to the bottom of the batter)

4. In another mixing bowl add sugar, eggs, grapeseed oil, buttermilk and mashed bananas. Stir to mix.

5. Pour the wet ingredients into the flour mixture and lightly fold until just combined. Do not over mix.

6. Scoop batter to fill half the muffin liners. Add two teaspoons of marmalade into each of the liners. Then cover with remaining batter.

7. Bake for about 20 to 25 minutes or until skewer inserted into the center of the muffin comes out clean. (Mine were done in 23 minutes)